Okay, I decided to accept the challenge...
Bewitchery
Part One by
Sean MacDonald
It was a day like any other day in mid-October; the weather was beginning to turn cold, and the leaves were beginning to change colors. Overcast grey skies loomed ominously overhead, and I felt a need to go out and do something, so I got in my car and drove to the mall. For a while, I wandered aimlessly, seeking what I knew not. I sighed as I saw Christmas decorations beginning to be displayed prominently. Can't they even wait till after Halloween? Then I noticed the Halloween Store. From outside, I could see hints of odd masks and costumes, and was drawn inside by my innate curiosity. However, as I picked through what little was there, I saw little out of the ordinary. I half expected a salesperson to beckon me to a back room, where might be found costumes of a more fantastic, possibly magical, nature, but such was not to be.
I felt a hand upon my shoulder and turned, not knowing what horrid sight might await my eyes, but no rugose monstrosity was there, no slavering demon or drooling monster. Instead of some repugnant terror, I beheld an attractive saleswoman who looked oddly familiar.
"Hi, can I help you?" she began, and then paused, staring at me. "I've seen you before, haven't I? At the University?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so. I'm Sean." I stared back at her lovely face, and was awe-struck by her beauty.
"Hi, I'm Jessica." As she spoke, I noticed her name tag supported her claim. "Are you just looking around?"
"Well, I was thinking of maybe getting this," I said, pulling a Superman costume off the racks, "but I don't have either the physique or the hair for it." I brushed aside my long blonde hair to emphasize this point.
"Hmmm, let's see what we've got," she replied, flipping through the racks of costumes. I wasn't sure what she was looking for; I had already examined all that was there. Perhaps she sought a Hercules costume; I had already seen the Hercules and Xena costumes based on the TV shows, but neither really suited me. "Ah, here we go," she commented, pulling out a costume, "How about this? Your hair would go well with this one."
I saw that she had pulled out a Supergirl costume. I wasn't quite sure what to say, and I didn't want to offend her. "Are you serious?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I don't see why not. Guys dress up as girls on Halloween all the time, and you're thin enough that you could probably pull it off."
I hesitated, thinking it over, but was still going to say no, when she asked, "Do you have any plans for Halloween?"
"Well, no, but..."
"Then, I tell you what. Why don't you meet me here on Halloween, about 5 o'clock; that's when I get off work. Then, I can help you with your costume, and we can go to this club I know where they're holding a costume contest. Okay?"
Once again, I hesitated, staring at the costume, wondering if I could bear to be seen in public wearing it. Jessica misinterpreted this pause, thinking I was looking at the price tag, and said, "I'll even buy your costume for you; well, how about it?"
Well, I couldn't fight it anymore; I realized that an attractive woman was effectively asking me out on a date while also offering to buy me this costume, which I might have wanted anyway (as a collectable, if not as a costume). "Sounds great," I answered truthfully, but wondered if I would really have the nerve to go along with it. Then we talked for a few minutes more, getting to know each other better, until finally I made some excuse and left.
I didn't see Jessica again during the days before Halloween. As the days passed, I began to anxiously anticipate this date, much as a child would do for Christmas, but I never stopped to think for very long about the costume that I would be wearing.
When the day of Halloween finally arrived, I drove to the mall around 1:00, not wanting to be late. I ended up roaming the mall with little to do, but I figured that was better than being late. I wasted a lot of time, browsing through the bookstores and playing games at the video arcade, but still began to grow restless. Finally, my watch read 4:30, so I headed over towards the Halloween Store. I waited pensively outside, out of sight, because I didn't want to seem too desperate by arriving too early. When my watch finally read 4:55, I could take it no more, and walked into the store. Jessica was there, waiting on customers; as she saw me, she waved and told me that she'd be a few minutes.
I watched her ring up some purchases until one of her coworkers took over for her. Then, she beckoned to me to follow her, which I did. We left out the rear of the store, passing through a small employee's lounge where she picked up a bag with a receipt stapled into its top, and we headed towards the parking lot.
She led me to her car, and I got in, while she tossed the package in the back. "I figured we'd go by my apartment first, get dressed, and then go out. You don't need to stop by your place for anything, do you?" she asked.
"No, that's fine."
As she drove, I couldn't help but stare at her. She was so beautiful, with her long black hair and her curvaceous body shown off by her tight minidress. After a few minutes, we had arrived. She grabbed the bag as we got out of the car and walked to her apartment. Once we were inside, she showed me my costume, which she pulled out of the bag, and asked me, "Well, do you still want to go through with this?"
One look in her deep, dark eyes left me without the power to say no. "Sure, let's do it."
She smiled. "Good. You'll need to shave first, face and legs. There's a razor and a bottle of Nair in the bathroom. You can handle that by yourself, yes?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied, not having realized all that might be entailed. She pointed her bathroom out to me, and I entered it, closing the door behind me. I stripped off my clothes and applied Nair self-consciously to my legs. The cold white substance chilled me, as I waited for it to do its job. Finally, time came to wash it off, and I was surprised at the difference. My legs felt completely different, smooth and silky. I had to shave a couple of locations where a few hairs were left, but the overall effect was quite impressive. After I shaved my face as well, I considered puttig my clothes back on, but chose instead to wear only a towel, as I would soon be putting on the Supergirl costume anyway.
Clad in only a pink towel which I wore around my waist, I opened the door, and found Jessica who had put her own costume on. She was wearing a black dress with sparkles in it, a belt consisting of metallic moons and stars, black fishnet hose, and black high-heeled shoes. She looked at me and grinned. "Good, now go into the bedroom," which she pointed out to me, "and put on the items I have laid out for you. You'll need them to look like a woman."
I followed her instructions and found waiting for me a tight panty-girdle, a pair of false breasts, a bra, and a pair of red high-heeled shoes. I took off the towel and put on the bra with only a little difficulty and put the false breasts in it; it seemed odd to look down and see them sticking out, but I had expected something of the sort. The panty-girdle, on the other hand, was a bit less comfortable. I could barely pull it up all the way up, and it constricted my body terribly, so that I became aware of every breath I took. My genitals, however, did not fit in at all, until I realized that I was supposed to tuck them between my legs; after doing so, I looked down and saw a very feminine contour.
Jessica walked in, looked me over, and said, "Good, you're ready to put on the costume." She handed me the Supergirl costume, and I examined it, trying to figure out how it was supposed to be worn. It came in several pieces: a tie-on red cape, two red "boots", a yellow tie-on belt, and a mini-dress with a built-in red panty. I noticed that the back of the minidress opened wide, but tied shut. I stepped in through the back of the costume, and pulled it up, sticking my arms through the blue sleeves. I pulled it as high as it would go (being limited by the red panty under the red miniskirt), and it just barely fit; as it was, it was quite tight, showing off every curve of my body. I tied it behind me, and looked again at the belt. It was really pretty cheap, being a piece of yellow plastic for the front and a piece of black cloth attached at each end, allowing it to be tied around the back; thus, only the yellow part would show. I tied it around my now much thinner waist, and tied the cape around my neck as well. Then, I looked at the costume's boots and understood why Jessica had also left me a pair of shoes; the boots were very large and had no bottom except a piece of elastic, allowing them to be worn over whatever shoes a person might choose to wear. I could understand that, as it would be difficult to mass-produce costumes, taking into account different shoe sizes.
I wondered how Jessica could have guessed my shoe size, but found the high-heeled shoes only a little too small. My feet were pinched terribly, but they did fit inside. Then I put the boots over them, and I was done, or so I thought.
Jessica returned again, this time she was wearing black lipstick, dark eyeshadow, and long, black false fingernails. "Oh, good, you're almost ready. Come." She beckoned me over to her makeup table, where she had me sit. This was uncomfortable, as I was basically sitting on my testicles, but I endured. She explained what she was doing as she did each step, but I paid little attention, as I did not plan to ever do this again. Eventually, she had applied foundation, blush, blue eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, and bright red lipstick as I daydreamed about other things. My daydreams ended as I felt her painfully plucking my eyebrows. "Hey!" I commented.
"Hush, they'll grow back," she replied. I wasn't sure about that, but I figured she knew what she was doing. Several painful minutes later, she proclaimed that she was done. I looked in the mirror, expecting to see a beautiful woman, but only saw myself in makeup. I couldn't possibly fool anyone, I imagined. I pondered what people's reactions to me might be, as Jessica grabbed my right hand and began working on it; I looked down, and realized that she was gluing long red false fingernails over my own fingernails. Oh well, in for a penny...
I figured she was done after she finished my nails, but she told me that I still needed earrings. "We'll have to get your ears pierced first," she commented, with a wry grin.
"What?"
She smiled. "Just kidding. Here." She handed me a pair of red clip-on earrings, which I put on with some help from her.
"Now, I think, we're ready to go," she told me. I stood up, and she grabbed her purse and a witch hat before leading me back to her car. It took me several tries to open the car door with these long fingernails. "How do women put up with these things?" I asked. Jessica shrugged. She drove us to the club she had mentioned before, and I could see a long line of people standing outside, all dressed in a variety of costumes. A sign proclaimed that costumes were mandatory tonight and that the winner of the costume contest would get $500.
We got out and stood in line. A cool breeze was blowing, and my bare legs were freezing. While we waited in line, we talked about the costumes that other people were wearing. Most people were rather unimaginative, and I recognized many of the costumes as ones that I had chosen not to buy. The most unusal wasa probably the woman who was dressed as an M&M. The others were more standard fare: a skeleton, a pumpkin, a cow, two people dressed as a horse, a devil lady, a pair of gypsies, a Roman Centurion, and a guy dressed as a table. There certainly didn't seem to be much competition, but I still didn't think I had a chance of winning. When I told this to Jessica, she replied that it might help if she told the judges that I was really male.
I was surprised. "You mean, you think they won't be able to tell?"
"Of course not. Look," she replied, pointing at the club's window which was reflective due to the darkness. I saw a woman dressed as a witch standing next to a woman dressed as Supergirl, and... Oh. I realized that while I might not be as beautiful as she, I still looked like a woman, unless you looked carefully.
"One thing that's been bugging me, though," she continued, "is, if Superman's home planet of Krypton exploded, where did Supergirl come from?"
A smile crossed my lips as I began to organize the information in my mind in such a way as to explain to a non-comics reader all the pertinent knowledge. I told her of how Argo City survived due to the foresight of Superman's father's brother, how the inhabitants of the domed city of Argo had to deal with the ground beneath them turning into Anti-Kryptonite, how Superman's father's brother had a child named Kara Zor-El who was rocketed to Earth from Argo, how Kara had patterned a costume after Superman whose adventures she had watched from Argo City, how she met Superman for the first time, how she became his "secret weapon", how she revealed herself to the public for the first time, and how she died, sacrificing herself for the multiverse.
"She's dead?"
"Yeah. In fact, they decided that she never existed, and so they created a new version of Supergirl who's not Kryptonian, but that's a whole 'nuther story."
I didn't have time to tell this other story, though, as we were now entering the club. Soon, we found one of the few remaining tables and sat down. I was amazed at the large number of people packed into such a small space, but it was made more unusual by the vast array of costumes. Harlequins, cavemen, mice-women, zombies, and all the other costume varieties surrounded us.
It turned out that Jessica had timed things well, as the contest was just about to start. We all had to get in line and walk across a small stage so that everyone could see our costumes. There was a small group of guys (dressed as leather-clad bikers) who hooted and whistled whenever a sexy woman crossed the stage. I was surprised when they did the same for me. I felt myself blushing, and getting a little excited. What would they think if they only knew, I wondered. When it was Jessica's turn, she created bursts of sparkly light and smoke while giving a little sexy speech; I had no idea that she was going to do anything like that.
After we had all shown ourselves off, we had to sit down and wait for the judges to make their decisions. I asked Jessica how she performed those tricks on the stage, and she described the simple "magic" tricks that anyone could do. She told me that since her costume was fairly simple, she had to something to stick out.
A few moments later, the music began to play again, and some people were dancing. The guy dressed as a Roman Centurion came up to our table and asked, "Pardon me, but would you like to dance?"
There was an awkward pause, after which I said to Jessica, "Well? Answer him."
"Um," he commented, "I was talking to you." He was staring at me. It took a while for this to register in my mind. He wanted to dance with me.
"Go ahead," Jessica told me.
What could I do? I accepted his offer, and he led me to the dance floor. At least it was better than sitting on my poor tortured genitals all night. Fortunately, the music wasn't terribly slow, so he didn't have to hold onto me as much as he might've, but it still felt odd dancing with him. After one song, the music stopped again, and the emcee told us that the judges had made their decisions. First, they announced the Runner-Up. It was Jessica. She gleefully rushed up to the stage to accept her certificate. Then came time to announce the winner. It was someone I'd never heard of. Not me. When the guy rushed up to the stage, I could see why he had won; he was dressed as a Predator (from the movie) in a home-made costume with incredible detail.
Well, at least it's over, I thought. Then a purple cloud of smoke appeared on the stage, out of which walked one of the other contestants. She, too, had dressed as a witch, but with none of the panache that Jessica had displayed. She grabbed the microphone from the emcee and began to speak. "So," she began, "you think she's a better witch than me, do you? Ha! She's not a witch at all! In fact, none of you are real! Let me show you what it's like to be real!" She gestured at all of us, and I felt a strange sensation ripple through my body. Then, in a burst of smoke, she disappeared, laughing.
I looked around the room and, much to my surprise, everyone's costumes looked better. Why, that cow over there looks like a real cow, I thought. Concerned for Jessica's safety, I ran to the stage where she still stood. "It's incredible!" Jessica stated.
"What?" I replied, and she just pointed out amongst the crowd. From this vantage point I could tell that something more than mere costume improvement had occurred. That cow was really a cow. That horse was really a horse. I could see through the ribs of that skeleton. Not everyone was even human-sized anymore; there was a pumpkin and a mouse where I knew that costumed women had been sitting.
"Thank god we're unchanged," I told her. Before she could reply, a fight broke out. I don't know who started it, but soon cavemen and serial killers were fighting against pirates and devils, in a vast array of multi-colored chaos. "Let's get out of here." I could tell by the worried look on her face that she agreed with doing so. I took her hand in mine, and led her around the outskirts of the battle, until we finally made it outside, unscathed. Jessica seemed to be in shock from the whole ordeal; I imagined her as being the one who would take control in such a situation, but, instead, I had to. When we reached her car, her instincts took over, and she unlocked the doors and let us in. As I got in and sat down, I noticed something odd; my boots looked better. In fact, they were now each one single piece, a form-fitting high-heeled boot rather than the ill-fitting giant red bottomless boot over a high-heeled shoe; the boots now looked more like Supergirl's "real" boots than they had earlier. Cool, I thought.
Shortly, we arrived at Jessica's apartment; she unlocked the door and let us in. I excused myself to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror, I realized that Jessica was right. I looked very much like a real woman; in fact, I did look rather sexy with those red pouting lips and all. I could do without the earrings, though; I reached up to pull them off, but they wouldn't come off. I pulled harder, and felt them break in my hands. I looked at the pieces and noticed that they seemed to be a pierced-ear style. Another silly little costume change, I thought. I looked in the mirror, and sure enough, my ears were now pierced. Well, that will heal, I thought.
I reached behind me to untie my cape, and discovered that it now attached to the costume in a slightly odd way, but it came off fairly easily. I then reached for the ties of the costume itself, so I could untie it and step out of it, but the ties were gone. I really needed to pee now, so I unfastened the belt and let the skirt fall to the floor. Another costume change; the belt before had mere decoration, and the skirt was a part of the whole. I looked down, and saw that the costume had yet another change: the formerly red panties were now blue and attached to the leotard upper half of the costume.
I decided not to worry too much about the costume anymore, and reached for my dick so I could pee. I felt between my legs...and panicked. I stripped off the blue leotard and stared at my naked body in the mirror. I was beautiful and sexy. I was Supergirl, emphasis on girl.
My large breasts were now real, and my female genitalia were slightly concealed by a small patch of blonde pubic hair. I had to tell Jessica. I got dressed as quickly as I could, and noticed I created quite a wind storm in the small bathroom as I did so. I rushed out, and found Jessica crying on her couch.
We both spoke at the same time. "We have to talk."
"We have to talk," we spoke in unison.
"You first," I suggested, as I sat on the couch next to Jessica.
"I...I think we should call the police or something. After all...Oh, god, it's all my fault, isn't it?" She sniffed, as she wiped her tears with a tissue.
"What? How do you mean?"
"If I hadn't tried so hard to win that damn contest, then the real witch wouldn't have gotten jealous and transformed everyone, and they'd still be people..."
"Hey, it's not your fault," I replied, putting an arm around Jessica to comfort her. "You can't be blamed for the actions of others; for all we know, she might've chosen to transform everyone anyway. And, uh, some people might like being transformed." With this last suggestion, I was really reaching, I knew.
She stared into my eyes. "You really think so? Oh, if only." She moved over towards me, and gave me a hug. As our chests touched, I became aware of the extra flesh I had acquired. Despite the platonic nature of this hug, I found myself becoming aroused, partly by the feel of her breasts against me, and partly by the feel of having breasts of my own. As she pulled away again, I noticed my stiff nipples visible through the tight material of my Supergirl costume.
Jessica looked over at me again, asking "How are you feeling now? I mean about your change?"
"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. It hasn't fully sunk in yet. I still feel normal, I'm still a person, but...this is not who I am."
"I'm sorry; I mean, I know you said it's not my fault, but I do feel responsible. If I had let you pick your own costume, you'd still be a guy and we could...I mean, we can't date or anything now, you know."
Oh. So that's how it was going to be, then. I could understand her position; if I had a girlfriend who turned into a guy, would I be interested in her/him? I doubted it. Her statement gave me one definite reason to hate my change.
"Oh, I just feel so helpless," she continued. "If only there was something we could do."
"There may be. Stand up; I want to test something."
She stood, and I reached under her couch to lift it. While I did need both arms to balance it, it seemed utterly weightless. I set it down, and told Jessica, "I seem to have Supergirl's powers, or at least her strength. You might have the same powers as the witch since you were dressed as one."
"Really? I hadn't thought of that, but I guess you're right. She pointed at a small ceramic figurine of a unicorn; sparks flew from her fingertips to surround it. There now stood a small, living unicorn. She pointed again and it resumed its original form. "My god, it works! Let's get back to the club!"
As we left her apartment, I couldn't resist the temptation to see if I could fly. I leapt into the air and hovered for a moment. I tried concentrating on moving up and to the left, but zoomed straight ahead instead; instinctively, I tried to redirect myself in a different direction, and plowed into the ground. Thank goodness for invulnerability. I stepped out of the ditch I had made as Jessica ran up to me.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, just experimenting. It looks like it'll take a while to learn how to fly. But, I can probably easily run at superspeed..."
"Um, it might be safer if we just took my car," she replied.
"Oh, okay."
We got in her car, and as she drove us, I experimented with various supersenses. Superhearing was easy to control, though there was little to hear but the car's engine. Telescopic Vision was pretty nifty; by looking at a distant spot, I could seem to bring it into closer focus. Using Microscopic Vision was similar. I hesitated to try X-Ray Vision, as early stories had not made much distinction between it and Heat Vision, and I had no intention of melting the car windows. As we arrived, I began ticking off the powers I hadn't yet tried. Superbreath, super-cold breath, super-suction, thermal vision, super ventriloquism...
"We're here," Jessica stated, interrupting my thoughts. I looked around, and saw a yellow police-ribbon around the nightclub, standing around which were a variety of transformed people and creatures.
Jessica and I got out of the car, and were met by my friend, the Roman Centurion. "There you two are," he commented. "I was wondering what had happened to you."
"We snuck out as soon as the fight started," I replied. "What happened here?"
"Well, during the fight, a lot of people were badly hurt or killed. I don't know what came over us; I felt like a warrior fighting off an army of monsters, and I'm afraid I gravely injured several people. After a while, we all came to our senses, and someone called for an ambulance. The police came too, but nobody was willing to press charges, since they knew nobody could control themselves. Isn't that right, Charlie?" This last remark was addressed to a skeleton who was standing nearby.
"Yeah, that's right. I sorta felt like killing everyone. 'Course, I didn't have no sword, like some did. Being a bone man means being hard to kill, though. A bunch of folk went home, but most of us are just standing around now, hopin' we'll change back to normal."
"That's why we're here," I replied. "Jessica here's a witch now, so she should be able to undo what the other witch did!"
"Well, go right ahead, please, little lady."
Jessica pointed at Charlie the skeleton and sparks flew from her fingertips, surrounding him. As the sparks faded away, I could tell that Charlie was unchanged.
"Is that it? You're not playing a trick on me, now are you?" Charlie asked.
"No, I don't understand," Jessica answered. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" I asked.
"You may think this is strange, but I seem to know how witchcraft works. There are several rules for these things."
"Makes sense to me," Charlie commented. "I gots all the powers of a skeleton, you gots all the power of a witch. What sorta witch would you be, if you didn't know how to do witch stuff?"
"Oh, okay," Jessica replied, "But here's the deal. A spell which is put on a living target can be crafted so that only the caster (or a much more powerful witch) can remove it, but in order to do so, some sort of limiting condition must be put on the spell, an alternative way to remove the spell, like being kissed by a princess or a prince."
"So, you're saying there's some way to remove this curse, but you don't know what it is?" Charlie replied.
"Right. Oh, I guess that seems kind of useless. But the odd thing is, I think that we should have been told how to remove the curse; otherwise, I should be able to simply zap it away. I don't understand why this isn't working right."
"Personally," the Centurion replied, "It's not a big deal to me. I wasn't changed all that much, and the costume was improved a bit. I was waiting around to see what happened to the others, but it doesn't look like anything's gonna happen tonight, so I'm gonna head on home." He turned to me and said "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."
"I'm, uh, call me Kara."
"Very well, Kara. I am Roberto. Will I see you again?"
"Uh, sure, I'll probably be visiting here every now and then."
"Good. Then, I shall see you later." And then he kissed me on the forehead and left. I didn't want to tell him the truth, so I decided I'd just avoid this place from now on, and I'd never have to deal with him again. For some reason, I had felt a nervous sense of arousal while he was present, almost expecting him to try something more.
"Well now what?" I asked Jessica.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking...First, I should try and see if there is anyone I can change back to normal. Charlie here may just be a unique case." Jessica pointed at me, sparks flew, and...still, nothing. She frowned, then went over to a large gathering of transformed folk, and began trying one at a time to transform them. While she was doing so, I tested out my X-Ray Vision; it took a while to focus it well, but soon I found myself staring at the inside of the nightclub; broken tables and glasses were scattered everywhere. I sadly noted a smashed pumpkin, which I presumed was one of the transformees. A black goat was also walking around, chewing on something, which I idly noted was made of paper. I continued to scan inside, but found nothing special; I assumed that when the police arrived, they would have investigated thoroughly, leaving nothing for me to find.
After a while, Jessica came back to me, and mentioned that she had no luck with the others. I told her that I had checked inside the club, and found nothing odd, other than the pumpkin and the goat.
"A black goat?"
"Yeah, that's right. Why?"
"Call it witch's intuition, but that just might be the familiar of the witch who transformed us! If we can catch it..."
She didn't have to say another word. I ran inside at incredible speeds, leaping over the police ribbon and smashing through the locked door. The goat looked up at me placidly and continued chewing. I picked the goat up and ran outside with him.
Jessica looked at the goat, and said, "Yes, that must be her familiar. Let's..." But before she could say another word, the goat vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving behind only the remains of what it had been chewing, a paper scrap that fell to the ground. "Damn."
Idly I picked up the scrap of paper, and was surprised at what I saw. I showed it to Jessica, and read it aloud to emphasize its importance. "The transformation which took place this evening of All Hallow's Eve, can only be undone by..." and the rest was gone, eaten by the goat.
"Is that sufficient? I mean, can the witch leave us a note and then have her familiar eat it?" I asked.
Jessica replied, "I'm not sure, but given the evidence, I'd have to say yes. I mean, technically, we might have had time to read the note, if not for the fight, assuming that she left the note when she disappeared...Yeah, that's allowed by the 'rules'. Damn. I guess the only way to undo the transformations, then, is to find her, and either get her to undo them or tell us how to undo them."
"How could we possibly find her? I mean, I could try scanning the city with X-Ray and Telescopic Vision, but that could take days, or months...and even then, she might move somewhere else. I don't suppose you know a spell that could find her?"
"No, not unless...damn! If we even had a hair from her goat, I could cast a similarity spell, and use it to home in on her...but we don't even have that!"
"Wait here," I replied. I went back inside, and carefully searched around the floor of the club. I easily found several hairs, and with supersmell, I was able to determine which smelled like the goat I had just carried. I brought these out to Jessica, and explained.
"Great!" she commented, and pointed at the hair. Sparks surrounded the hair, and it began to glow and float under its own power. It swirled around in the air for a moment, and then zoom! It rapidly flew off in one direction. "After it!"
I raced after the hair, barely visible in the dark of night. I realized that I was running faster than I had ever run before, and loose debris was swept up in my backwash. After a few minutes, the goat-hair flew into the wall of a small house and vanished. Using X-Ray Vision, I scanned the house, and saw the witch inside, apparently baking cookies. This was the place. I ran back to the nightclub.
"Okay, I found her," I told Jessica.
"Then what are you waiting for? Let's go."
I picked her up in my arms, and ran once again down the road leading to the witch's house. Upon arriving, I stopped and set her down. Her hair was badly windblown, her hat had apparently blown off, and she was she looked a little shaken. "Geez," she commented, "not so fast next time. That wind was a killer."
"Sorry."
"Just be careful. Not all of us are invulnerable, you know. Hmmm. What do we do now?"
"Let's try the front door," I suggested and knocked on the door. As my fist smashed into the door and sent it flying back thirty feet, I realized that I had forgotten how strong I had become. As we stood there gaping at the empty doorway, the witch came running out to see what had happened.
"So," the witch commented, "You've found me. You probably think you're pretty smart, don't you? Well you're wrong!" She pointed at us, and red sparkles surrounded us. "Now, you'll do as I say. Won't you?"
I found myself uncontrollably answering, "Yes," as I heard Jessica do likewise. What a fool I was, relying on Supergirl's powers to handle a witch, knowing that Supergirl is vulnerable to magic!
"You, my pretty," the witch stated, pointing at me, "you're the reason my spell didn't go as planned. You were all supposed to gain the mentality of what you became, believing that that was what you really were. And it worked for some people for a while, hence the barfight. But, you, my dear, you took a lot of power to create, and I'm not sure I could do it again on purpose. And, even though it means I've got much of my power tied up in this one spell, I'm not about to undo it. In fact, I had my familiar eat the notice that would have told everyone that anyone still in the building at the stroke of midnight tonight would change back. No, you'll make a valuable servant, if you have half the power I think you do."
Shit. Not only had I gone and gotten Jessica and myself trapped, but now the witch had all of my power, or rather Supergirl's power, at her disposal.
"First, a test, I think. Go steal me some jewels; not just diamonds, but emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Bring them back here to me. And do nothing else. Now go."
I felt myself complying, unwillingly, with her commands. I flew out the doorway, and headed towards a nearby jewelry store. Smashing in through the front window despite its metal bars, heedless of the alarms, I grabbed all that I could find. Diamonds were certainly far more plentiful and the gems were mostly already worked into jewelry. Scooping it all into a large sack that I was able to find, I flew back to the witch and handed the sack to her.
"Ah, good. Now let's see..." The witch then continued testing her command over us. She had me remove the gems from their settings and sort them into several small lead boxes, while Jessica had to clean the witch's kitchen. After we had completed our menial tasks, the witch stared at the pair of us and said, "You know, I don't really need two slaves. Having another witch around is certainly unnecessary. You, Supergirl, kill her."
I felt my arm pulling itself back, preparing to swing at Jessica, but as I stared at her lovely face, I struggled with all my will, and managed to keep my arm from moving any further. "I...I...won't...do...it..." I struggled to get these words out.
"So...you think you're tough, do you?" the witch replied. "We'll see about that." She went to where I had left the gem boxes, opened one, took out a single emerald, closed the box, and returned. "I can make things very painful for you. After all, everyone knows what can hurt you. For example..." She gestured over the gem and it changed appearance, becoming more rough-hewn and luminescent. "Kryptonite."
As she held the small piece of Green Kryptonite closer to me, I felt incredible pain in every nerve. I collapsed to the ground in agony, unable to move.
"Now, will you obey me?" she asked.
"N-n-never," I replied, though I could hardly speak from the pain I was in.
"I wouldn't be so sure, if I were you." She turned to Jessica. "You, fetch me more emeralds." Then, turning back to me, she continued, "If one small piece of kryptonite can lay you low, imagine several dozen such pieces!"
Jessica returned with one of the lead boxes. The witch cast magical sparks over the box, but when she opened it, a strong red glow emanated instead of the expected green. "What is this?" the witch spat angrily, plucking out a single small red rock before snapping the box's lid shut. All I knew was that something had gone wrong, that instead of emeralds, rubies had been changed to kryptonite. Red Kryptonite.
I felt a strange tingling feeling throughout my body, as I expanded to great size. My costume was tight, but it did not tear or rip, despite being stretched far beyond its normal size. I noticed myself dwarfing the others in the house, and began to burst through the walls of the house. Scales appeared on what I could see of my skin, and my hands turned into claws. I could feel a tail forming, as it slid out of my costume. I felt myself falling onto all fours, and great wings grew from my back, pushing out through the neckhole of my costume. My face also seemed to expand outward, and I see a scaly muzzle in front of me.
In a nearby window I could see my reflection. I had become a dragon, in a Supergirl costume. With a start, I let out a breath, and fire leapt out of my mouth, engulfing the house. I heard the witch yelling, "Put it out! Put it out," but was unsure how to begin. Fortunately, Jessica reacted faster. She ran outside, found a garden hose, and turned it on, spraying everything inside the house with it, including the witch, who suddenly began to smoke and shrink.
I had an eerie sense of deja vu as she began squealing, "What a world, what a world..." and melted away to nothingness. Jessica and I stared in numb shock as the fire continued to burn. Then, she pointed at me, and I felt myself returning to normal...no, scratch that, I was returning to Supergirl form, but I'd take that over being a dragon anyday. Quickly, Jessica ran to me, and explained that she had tried to disobey the witch's commands to fetch emeralds, so she had turned some rubies temporarily into emeralds, thereby fulfilling the literal request; Jessica knew that the witch needed an object of the right color to change into kryptonite, but had figured that kryptonite had to be green.
This was not the time or place to explain to her about Red Kryptonite, which always had random, unpredictable effects on Kryptonians, usually involving some sort of physical transformation. Instead, I thanked her for making me human again, and suggested that we head back to the club and inform everyone. Looking at a clock, we could tell that we only had minutes left to go.
"I think I know how to teleport now," Jessica mentioned, "but only by myself." So we quickly decided that she should teleport back to the club while I followed on after, as this would give her time to gather everyone in the club. I should be able to get back to the club with a minute or two to spare.
After pocketing the boxes full of gems, she disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, and I began to rush off towards the club, when suddenly I heard a scream for help.
I could see the fire had begun to spread incredibly rapidly with the gentle autumn wind, and one apartment building was already engulfed. An elderly woman was standing on a window ledge, obviously considering jumping despite the certain peril.
In that one moment, my life was forever changed. Obviously, I couldn't just let people die, not if I could help it, particularly since the fire was really my fault. I flew up to rescue her, and she asked me to save her kittens as well, so I flew into the flaming building and brought out two very frightened cats. As I began to fly away again, she asked me if it would be too much trouble to check on her neighbors as well... I could feel the seconds ticking away as I returned to the building, searching for people to rescue. After several minutes during which I impatiently felt time slipping away from me, I had brought out everyone in the building (and their pets too). Firetrucks arrived, and finally I felt that I could leave.
A crowd had gathered to watch me work, and they cheered as I rose majestically into the air, and flew towards the club. I wanted to stay to bask in my glory, but I had unfinished business. Buildings zipped past in a blur, as I struggled to move faster than I had ever moved before; in fact, I never had moved so fast before, but I had no idea if it would be fast enough. I arrived at the club and crashed through the roof to save time. I landed amidst a cloud of dust and chunks of the ceiling rained down around me. I looked and saw that I was surrounded by a crowd of people, ordinary people in costumes. I glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it read 12:03.
I was too late.
Jessica ran up to me with many questions. "What happened? Why are you so late?"
"Shit. I blew it. I had to save some people, but I couldn't save myself." I explained to her about the fire.
Roberto appeared in front of me, having overheard everything, and asked, "I don't understand why either of you wanted to change back; I'd think having either magical powers or superpowers would be great."
Jessica replied, "Witches dissolve in water; that's a rather severe problem to deal with. Fortunately, I won't have to worry about it anymore. But, my friend here," Jessica pointed to me, "has another reason for wanting to change back: she used to be a guy."
Roberto face showed first disbelief and then disgust. "I...I can't believe it. I thought you...I mean, oh, gross." He then turned and walked away. I felt oddly ashamed.
"Why'd you tell him that?" I asked Jessica.
"I thought he was bothering you. Did you really want him to keep hitting on you?"
"Oh, no, of course not. Thanks. So I guess everyone else changed back to normal, huh?"
"I think so, except for one horse, who seemed shocked at the thought of changing back. I'm really sorry about all of this. I can't imagine what you're going through."
I looked down at my gorgeous body, only slightly hidden by my skin tight top and red miniskirt. "I...I think I've always wanted this body, but I wanted to be with it, not in it. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm still attracted to women, but only men will be attracted to me now, and even then, they'll probably be repulsed when they know that I'm really a guy."
"I think you're going to have to learn to be who you are, and who you are now is Supergirl."
In the days that followed, Jessica taught me how to live as a woman, how to put on makeup, how to deal with periods, and all the other details that women have to put up with...except for one. Just as Superman's hair would not grow except under a red sun, I did not have to worry about shaving my legs or any other areas. Once I felt confident enough simply being female, I "came out" and revealed to the public who I had been and who I was now. Some were doubtful, but there were enough ex-victims of the witch's curse around to support my story; also, my incredible powers could be explained no other way. The jewelry store robbery was never explained, and I did not rush to tell my role in it, for fear my claims of being under the witch's control would not be believed. However, my actions at the fire were much lauded, and I became famous overnight. Even after my "fifteen minutes of fame" were over, the tabloids continued to run strange stories about me, and I got numerous letters from men, stating disconcertingly sexual desires, despite my having told the world who I had been. My life began to change in many ways, and I considered how I could use my powers to help others in a world without supervillains.
Some of my friends were curious about my change, but I was still me, and they came to accept that. I did wonder what Jessica planned to do with the box full of Red Kryptonite, though.
------------------ About the title: I was originally going to call this "The Witching Hour" but couldn't find a way to use midnight in the story. After I changed the title (to a random word involving witches), I realized how I could've used the witching hour. D'oh.
I had intended to have more introspection in regards to the gender change, but I couldn't put it in without it seeming forced. Perhaps I'll write some "Red K" sequels later...
Any suggestions?